Thursday, April 23, 2009

If you want to make a few bucks from all the hard work you are putting into your Blogger blog then consider adding a Paypal donate button to your Blogger blog (Blogspot blog).

Adding a donation button will encourage all those happy readers to say a big thank you for helping them out. Not everyone will donate but you will get the odd generous soul who will willingly donate some chump change to shout you a coffee.

In this Blogger tutorial we will be adding a gadget to the Blogger sidebar or alternatively you could place it in the foooter of your Blogger template. We will be using a widget to contain our Paypal Donate Button and will not be changing your Blogger template. If you wish to place the donate button into your Blogger posts see the end of this Blogger tutorial for details.

Skill level is rated easy.

How to Add a Paypal Donate Button to Blogger (Sidebar or Footer Gadget)Note: Updated on January 20 2012 to take account of new Paypal interface

4. Choose Donations from the list of key features displayed in the right sidebar of the PayPal Website Payments Standard Option (first of 3 payment solutions)Note Paypal have changed its interface. You now need to select PayPal Website Payments Standard from Merchant Services drop down and then under the buttons in option 1 you will see in pretty tiny writing I must say "There are also buttons for donations and gift certificates." Click on donations.

8. Choose Donors enter their own contribution amount radio button unless you want to have a set amount

9. Ensure the Secure Merchant ID radio button is selected. This will prevent spammers getting hold of your email address

10. At Step 2 it is worth saving your button

11. At Step 3 Customize your checkout page by allowing donors to write a short comment by selecting the Yes radio button to special instructions to seller

12. Select the No radio button for Customer's Shipping Address

13. Select the Create Button button

14. Once Paypal creates the donate button code copy it by right clicking your mouse and choosing copy

15. Logout of Paypal

16. Login to Blogger if you are not already logged in

17. Go to Design > Page Elements

18. Click on the Add a Gadget link in the sidebar

19. Choose HTML/Javascript widget from the list provided

20. Paste the button code into the Content box of the dialog box that appears by placing the mouse inside the box and right clicking the mouse and then paste

21. Select a title like "Shout Me a Coffee Today!" or whatever you would like

22. Click on the Save button

23. Drag and drop your new donation gadget into the spot you want it to appear in

24. Click the Save button to ensure your changes are saved

25. Click View Blog to see your new donate button in the sidebar of your Blogger blog

26. Click on your new donate button and you will be taken to the Paypal Checkout screen

Tips and Troubleshooting

To Add a Paypal Donate Button to Blogger PostsThe following instructions will add a Paypal Donate button to all new Blogger posts. Note previous posts will not be changed. You will need to hard code the button into your Blogger template to have the Paypal Donate button added to every Blogger post. (Please ask if you need help with this)

Follow the directions (steps 1-16) as above to get your Paypal button code

In Blogger go to Settings > Formatting

Paste the Paypal Donate Button code into the Post Template box

Save changes

Click on New Post to see that the code will be automatically inserted at the foot of each new post. (you will need to be in Edit Html mode to see the code)

To Add a Paypal Donate Button to Individual Blogger Posts

Follow the directions (steps 1-16) as above to get your Paypal button code

In Blogger go to the post you wish to insert the button code into

Insert the button code taking care to change all instances of double quotes to single quotes

Save post and publish as normal. (If you have trouble with the preview post button in the old editor in Blogger click on compose and then edit html)

This Blogger tutorial has walked you through the steps needed to add a Paypal donate button to your Blogger blog (Blogspot blog) including how to configure your Paypal button at Paypal. I have covered adding the button as a sidebar gadget or footer gadget or alternatively added to Blogger posts. Have fun!

Hi Quality Blogger. I am not 100% sure what you mean but when someone donates there is a place for them to enter some text describing the purpose of the donation. If you mean can other contribute to your blog apart from the comment area then yes you can invite people to write articles. Take a look at Settings > Permissions to set this up. You can have up to 100 authors. Hope this helps

Hello Tom. It's a bit of a lottery whether you strike any kind folk who will donate to you. Also I guess it depends on the nature of your blog and how easy it is to obtain the information elsewhere. With so much blog scraping happening now I find that it is hard to produce anything that remains original for long. And this has had a detrimental effect on donations. Hope you will continue to call back for more Blogger tips and tutorials

thank you for a very comprehensive and yet simple explanation of how to set up a donation button. I have been wanting to do this but did not know how. Now I just have to wait and see if anyone donates.thanks

Dude, great post! I had been wondering how to do this and this made it super simple! On my way to add this to two of my blogs: http://training-my-ferret.blogspot.com and http://parakeetpet.blogspot.com Thank you so much!

Hi Erin I have just updated this blog tutorial to answer your question. The paypal donate code can be added to blog posts in several ways. Use single quotes for individual posts or add the code to the post template footer to have the button automatically added to each new post. This will not work on previous posts that need the button hard coded into the template. If you want help to do this please ask.

Thankyou, after 5 hours of trying to work it out yesterday, I stumbled upon your site this morning and it took me 20 minutes!!! You are amazing and I am very thankful for you efforts and sharing! I hope great things come your way!

Hi All. I have just updated the instructions as people were having problems finding the Paypal donation link. Not surprised it is so tiny since Paypal changed its interface and site layout. If anyone is still having difficulty creating their donation button following these instructions please let me know.

Thank you. Added it. One thing to note though. PayPal interface has changed, had to do a bit of Googling to get to the page where I could generate a Donate button. Blogger more or less still current. Thanks agian.